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Trump May End Anchor Babies

During an interview with Axios for an upcoming HBO documentary, President Donald Trump said that his administration is looking into ending anchor babies. He said that he had always been told that such a move would require a constitutional amendment to the existing 14th Amendment. However, others have told President Trump that such is not the case. Children of illegal immigrants may not fall under the 14th Amendment as ″subject to the jurisdiction thereof″ as stated in the amendment. While passed in 1868 to make African born slaves and their children citizens following the Civil War, children born of foreigners in the United States were not considered citizens until the mid 1960s.

The question of ″born or naturalized″ is not really an issue as this deals specifically with children born of current citizens, or with those of legal immigrants whom have applied for citizenship. Much of the defense of anchor babies being U.S. citizens stems from the case of Wong Kim Ark, born in the United States while his parents were trying to immigrate to Canada from China in 1927. The court ruled in favor of Wong being a U.S. citizen, citing a previous case, Elk v. Wilkins. However, in that case, the Elk family, while not citizens, were subject to the ″jurisdiction″ of the United States. Furthermore, the court did not take into account a treaty between the United States and China at the time, forbidding Chinese citizens from becoming American citizens. Also in the Wong case, the court did not take into consideration the Senate debate on the 14th Amendment, which specifically showed that its authors did not intend for babies born by foreign nationals here to be granted citizenship, unless their parents had sworn an oath to become citizens and abide by our laws and jurisdiction.

So, what this all boils down to is that a new challenge to the Supreme Court could reverse the anchor baby policy. President Donald Trump could accomplish such with an executive order. An estimated 300,000 anchor babies are born in the United States every year. This number is probably very low-balled, as new studies show that America has some 22 to 30 million illegal aliens residing here, not the 11 million talked about since the 1990s. The economic cost is estimated at over $120 Billion dollars per year to support all illegal immigrants. The cost to our culture and nationhood is far more.

With illegal immigration increasing again, especially with waves of caravans from Central America, President Trump is taking action. Another 5,200 U.S. military personnel are being deployed to our southern border with Mexico, joining some 2,100 already there. The deployment is to provide additional logistical support to Border Patrol and ICE agents, such as transportation, shelter building and such. The most recent migrant caravans crossing the border between Mexico and Guatemala have resorted to violence. Their organizers deliberately place women and children in front, putting them in harms way.